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Geoffrey Taylor's blog

During the recent United States' presidential election campaign almost the entire mainstream was heavily biased against Donald Trump, and in favour of Hillary Clinton. Surprisingly, given Hillary Clinton's repeated claim that Donald Trump was a puppet of Vladimir Putin, the Russian news service RT America was also stronglybiased against Donald Trump. Whilst it would be wrong to conclude from this that Clinton was actually Putin's puppet, rather than Trump, how was it possible for a Russian taxpayer-funded news service to act against Russia's own interests by promoting the russophobic Clinton?

Lattakia, SANA – The Australian sport delegation, that is on a visit to Syria to express solidarity with its people against terrorism, concluded its visit to the coastal Lattakia province on Thursday.

During the three days they spent in Lattakia, the delegation members, who include sport and media figures and activists, held meetings with political and sport figures and paid visits to the mausoleum of Late President Hafez al-Assad and the ancient city of Ugarit.

Heading the Australian delegation, Rev. David Smith, who is a boxer and a cleric, highlighted the importance of the friendly matches and sport presentations the Australian boxers held with boxing teams in Lattakia.

The Australian boxing team currently visiting Syria in solidarity with its fight against terrorism conducted on Saturday a number of friendly matches with members of the Syrian national boxing team today in Fayhaa Sports Complex in Damascus.

The Syrian and Australian athletes conducted a series of three-round matches, which follow a series of exercises conducted earlier on Friday in which Syrian boxers showcased their skills and rigorous training.

The Australian Boxing Team visiting Syria in solidarity with its fight against terrorism conducted yesterday a series of exercises preparing for a set of matches today in Fayhaa Sports City.

Rev. David Smith, head of the Australian delegation, a boxer and a cleric, said in a statement to SANA:" We want to draw the attention of the world to the fact that Syria is alive, and there are still life and joy and sports here, not just death and destruction; which is always the message broadcasted on television. We are doing that through sport because we want to play with our friends here and build more relations with Australian and Syrian people, and we want to show the whole world the real Syria and the real Syrian people"

The otherwise informative 1 Russian English language web-site Sputnik International has published on 18/5/16 a 'news' report Houthi Rebels Carry Out Wave of Arrests in Yemen, Use Torture. (A copy of the article is included below as an appendix.) As the title suggests, it claims that the same Houthi rebels, who have been fighting an invasion of Yemen by Saudi Arabia since March 2015, "have carried out a brutal campaign against their political opponents, arbitrary arresting people, using tortures and kidnappings."

The article, Amnesty International: Syria: Armed Opposition Groups Committing War Crimes in Aleppo City, originally published here on 14 May 2016, has been made an appendix. At face value, the article appeared to confirm what candobetter and other news sources (as opposed to the msm) have been writing about the terrorist invaders. However, concealed within the article is the claim that "the scale of war crimes by government forces is far greater" i.e. precisely the same narrative that is clearly intended by the Western msm to justify the expansion of the current war, ostensibly against Islamic State, into a war to remove the allegedly even more brutal 'regime' of President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian and Syrian government forces appear to have deliberately and systematically targeted hospitals and other medical facilities over the last three months to pave the way for ground forces to advance on northern Aleppo, an examination of airstrikes by Amnesty International has found.

Even as Syria's fragile ceasefire deal was being hammered out, Syrian government forces and their allies intensified their attacks on medical facilities. ...

Open borders advocate interviewed on RT's 'Boom Bust'

At the start of RT's Boom Bust, at 17:30 +10 on 3 Oct 2015, Ameera David interviewed Bryan Caplan, an advocate of open borders from the United States. He was fully in favour allowing all refugees and immigrants to settle in Europe. He claimed that the current inhabitants of the countries to which the immigrants/refugees would gain from having large numbers of additional people in their country.

Previously published on the PressTVYouTube channelDozens of locals followed the unlikely pet walk to the beach where they gathered round to take photos with the felines. The owner had purchased the two infant lions from a run-down zoo in Gaza at the start of the year. The cat-loving family has been raising the cubs in a three-room apartment with their four children. But what will happen when the cubs grow up? Your comments invited.

As with all the recent major geo-political conflicts, the Western corporate and government newsmedia is concealing the truth about Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea. The protest movement which preceded the coup against the elected government included anti-semitic and russophobic neo-nazis. Given the destruction and mass murder the United States and its allies have inflicted on Iraq, Libya and Syria, in recent years, the Russian Government of President Vladimir Putin has good reason to fear a country on its borders falling into the hands of such right-wing extremists openly in league with the United States and Europe against Russia.

"The Victorian Greens have pledged to continue to campaign against the East West Link in marginal seats despite Labor promising to scrap the project if elected.

As the Greens aim to win a balance of power in the upcoming state election, Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber said the party was campaigning fiercely about the East West Link in a number of inner-city marginal seats.

...

"In the hotly contested seat of Melbourne, Greens candidate Ellen Sandell criticised the opposition's stance on the East West Link.

The Wyong Shire Council on NSW's Central Coast, has given its approval for the construction of the "Chappypie China Time" theme park to be built on 15.7 hectares of bushland at Warnervale. The bushland was sold to the Australia Chinese Theme Park Pty Ltd (ACTP) for $10 million. A short presentation by the Wyong Shire council to promote the Theme Park is shown below:

Mass Protests By Families of Men Drafted into the Ukrainian Army

Transcript of the Video

Location of Protests: Prykarpattia Region, West Ukraine

News Anchor: In the Ciscarpathian region (Prykarpattia, West Ukraine) mass protests took place. The main participants are the families of men summoned for military draft. People trust neither local authorities nor military leadership in Kiev. They have many questions to the authorities and they demand immediate answers. More in our video report, coming up next.

Polish media outlet Nie has published a bombshell account about direct Polish involvement in Ukraine's destabilization. Its source alleges that the Polish Foreign Ministry had invited Ukrainian militants into the country and trained them outside of Warsaw in September 2013.

Candobetter editorial comment: Modern history since the time of the Second World War is full of paradoxes.

No other people have suffered as much at the hands of the German Nazis as the Jews and the Poles. Yet, Israeli soldiers and, as this article shows, Polish military instructors, helped the Ukrainian neo-nazis to destabilise the elected Government of President Viktor Yanukovych and overthrow it in the putsch of 22 February 2014.

The elected President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, gave a speech on 14 April in Rostov-on-Don. Rostov-on-Don, in addition to the Crimea, has been taken back by Ukrainians from the illegitimate government which which overthrew President Yanukovych's elected government in a coup, orchestrated by the CIA on 22 February. The Australian Government has joined a preposterous sanction-imposing alliance against Russia, led by the United States, which shows gut-churning hypocrisy and a disregard for the rules of evidence in accusing Russia of aggression against Crimea and Ukraine."

Malcom Fraser was Minister of the Army from 1966 until 1971 as Australia was participating in the war against Vietnam.

He became Prime Minister of Australia as a result of the CIA's coup against the Whitlam Labor Government in 1975 as described in Chapter 40 of The CIA – a forgotten history1 (1986) by William Blum. Christopher Boyce about which the movie The Falcon and the Snowman3 (1985) was made, observed CIA interference in Australian politics at the same time.

You can see why the hoax was so successful; so many people would have liked someone like Lorde to do something like this - but she would probably have completely ruined her career, had she done so. And it was rather hard to imagine a 17 year old being that politically aware - right to the references. A good speech, but not Lorde's. Below and inside is the hoax that was:

Update, 19 Feb 2014: You can watch the program on-line here. Apologies for this late notice, but after serving his prison sentence of 24 years for spying on the United States Government, Christopher Boyce will reveal all in a program to be broadcast tonight at 9.30 tonight on Dateline on the free-to-air SBS One television station.

Legitimate security experts know that full body irradiation scanners and body searches at airports don't improve security ... but the United States and Australian airport security authorities do it anyway.

Evidential proof of every abuse documented in this film is available in the report and exhibit sections.

This compelling new hour long documentary demolishes a mountain of dishonestreporting by the Australian media. It also exposes ABC and other commentators, including supposed comedians, cruelly enjoying Corby's suffering. The latter include Paul McDermott and the Chaser. The essential facts of the case are presented in the first 3 minutes and are fully substantiated in the rest of the video.

"Resisting is pointless," we hear endlessly repeated. "So many years of protest but the crisis continues, why bother?" insist others, inoculating us with apathy and resignation. "Protests could lead to something that's even worse," whispers the machinery of fear. They want us submissive, heads bowed. Dreams of change are forbidden. However, history rebels, indomitable. And it shows us, despite the naysayers, that struggle is worth it.

In 1984, the hit song 99 Red Balloons, the English language version of 99LuftBallons released in 1983 by the German band Nena, expressed the dread of nuclear war, the outbreak of which many believed to be imminent. As explained by retired United States Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel Robert M. Bowman (1934-2013) who, at the same time, during the years of the Reagan Presidency, started campaigning against the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI aka "Star Wars"), the fears expressed in 99 Red Balloons were well founded.

After years of openly arming al-Qaeda extremists, firstly in Libya in its war to overthrow the government of the late Colonel Muammar Qaddaffi and, secondly, in Syria against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, the Obama administration and its mainstream media mouthpieces have since turned this reality on its head and are claiming that the Syrian government is arming al-Qaeda.

With her usual rigour, the Syrian Girl compares these claims with known facts and logic in her YouTube broadcast.

In his opening address to the Geneva 2 Peace conference on 22 January 2014, published by SANA, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem gave a comprehensive account of the terrorist war of aggression that has, according to some estimates, cost Syria 100,000 lives in almost three years since March 2011. His speech named other conference attendees, including the United States, Israel and the Arab dictatorships of Qatar and Saudi Arabia as the principle perpetrators of these crimes. This speech was also published on Global Research on 22 Jan 2013.

The address by Secretary of State, John Kerry, which contains a number of known falsehoods, is also included as an Appendix for comparison with Walid Moallem's speech. The original can be found on the U.S. Secretary of State's web-site.

Geneva , (SANA) – The plane of the Syrian official delegation participating in the international conference on Syria arrived at Geneva airport after being delayed at Athens International Airport for four hours due to being prevented from refueling.

Earlier, SANA's correspondent, who is on the plane as part of a media delegation, said that the Secretary General of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs also relayed the Greek authorities' apology for the unintentional delay to the crew and passengers, particularly to the members of the official delegation.

(The interview in this format and with these images was originally published by SANA on 21 Jan 2014, the day the before the scheduled Geneva 2 Peace talks. It has also been re-published on Global Research.) Editorial introduction: As noted before on candobetter on 11 June 2013, for a leader, whom even many ostensibly anti-war spokespersons insist is a corrupt and brutal dictator, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has shown an astonishing willingness to be interviewed by critical and often hostile reporters. In not one interview have I seen President al-Assad fail to give informative and clearly truthful answers to all questions put to him (with the exception of those questions relating to military security and areas outside of his own direct reponsibility). Not only is President al-Assad acting upon the most laudable and humane motivations, he is also astonishingly intelligent, well-informed and quick-thinking as the interview below will show.

One of the few political leaders I can think of, who comes close to President al-Assad in these qualities, is the late United States President John F. Kennedy (JFK) who was murdered over 50 years ago for standing up to the same sorts of criminals that President al-Assad and the Syrian people are fighting today. It seems that President al-Assad and most supporters of Syria have not been made aware that the late JFK, as Senator in the 1950s and as President from January 1961, was an outspoken supporter of Arab nationalism, particularly that of the Algerian FLN. Were that to be made known, then possibly support for the Syrian people's fight against aggression could be made even broader still.

The wives and daughters of those who have fallen defending their country against terrorists are stepping forward to take their places. The terrorists, who have killed these husbands and fathers, and who have murdered many other unarmed Syrians, have been shamefully supported by the United States, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and their allies, including Australia. This video report, of 7 October by Press TV, features an interview with one of the fallen Syrian soldiers before his death in battle. His daughter, who is volunteering to join the army to replace him, is also interviewed. The report also features interviews with daughters, wives and mothers of other fallen Syrian soldiers, who are also volunteering to join the Syrian Arab Army. The video also features scenes of the new women recruits in training.